Expect to experience some sore muscles when you first start bike commuting. Eventually you'll gain strength, improve your balance, enhance your breathing, lower your blood pressure, reduce your resting pulse rate, sleep better, and on and on. In short, your fitness will improve, simply by commuting to and from work everyday on a bicycle.

When the weekend comes along, what are you going to do? Plop your hard-earned vitality in front of a television or something? Of course not! Get out there and bicycle some more! Recruit a friend to cycling. Find a local cycling club. Take a ride out in the country. Pack along a picnic lunch and a camera and explore your world.

Another important step is advocacy. You've embraced a better, healthier, more affordable, and more environmentally sensitive method of travel. Now help make it easier for others to make the same choice. A popular cycling advocacy slogan:

Cyclists should expect and demand safe accommodation on our public roads, just as does every other user. Nothing more is expected. Nothing less is acceptable.

This modest reasoning should be the foundation of all public policy regarding our streets. Unfortunately, for too long, too many government officials and traffic planners have prioritized automobile movement over everything else.

There are a lot of things more important than the velocity of automobiles: sense of community, quiet streets, neighborhood quality of life, the safety of children, pedestrians and senior citizens, clean air, economic vitality, etc. Find the bicycling advocacy organization in your community and join their effort to enhance cycling conditions. In California, visit the California Bicycle Coalition for links to local groups. In the US, visit the League of American Bicyclists for contact with hundreds of group. If no group exists in your community, form one.

Best of luck with your experience bicycle commuting. I'm certain you'll find your life enhanced by the choice. Let me know how you make out.